June 18, 2011 (Torsby, Sweden) – Roller ski intervals up to steep cliffs of Tossebergsklätten and hard workouts in the ski tunnel of Torsby; this is the plan for the Swedish cross-country team women in upcoming days. The Swedish women’s XC ski team is ready for a tough training camp, which kicked off on June 16th in Torsby. “We are working hard to further develop for the upcoming season,” said women’s team head coach Rikard Grip.

Motivation in the team is at a high level. “I’m working with aggressive and determined girls. Their only desire is to get better and better,” claimed Grip after the first training camp in Monte Gordo on the Algarve coast and physical tests in Ostersund. “We are getting ready for the season. If you want to compete with the best you have to do well all the time,” he said,

Torsby Stands for Quality
Charlotte Kalla, Anna Haag and the rest of the team has everything they need for the quality training outside of the Valberget hotel. “The ski tunnel is a great facility. The girls get the possibility to train both classical and free techniques and fine-tune their technical details. It’s perfect that we can alternate skiing in the tunnel with dry-land workouts,” commented Grip as praised the training conditions in Sweden.

Sweden’s women’s team got a reinforcement of the coaching staff with recruitment of Rikard Larsson. He is supposed to take over some of the duties from Grip in training, coaching and logistics. Seven hungry girls from the Swedish Team 2015 (for Nordic Worlds in Falun) made it Torsby as well. “I am happy that I can meet them and their coach Lars Selin, both teams inspire each other,” added Grip.

U.S. sprint specialist Kikkan Randall and her teammate Liz Stephen received an invitation to train with the Swedish women and have spent almost two weeks in Sweden. The U.S. athletes will spice up the training camp in Torsby. The Swedish men’s cross-country team and Team 2015 will also carry out their training camp in Torsby later this summer.